The introductory text of the bill asserts that it is designed to
improve police accountability, however the actual language of the bill
contains no provisions that would force police departments to
investigate complaints or dictate any type of process that would
improve accountability at all. In essence, it only gives police
officers more rights and communities fewer rights in how they can
police their own police.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday voted to approve Sonia
Sotomayor as the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice over nearly solid
Republican opposition, paving the way for a historic confirmation vote
next week.

The Senate ethics committee has interviewed a former Countrywide Financial executive who testified under oath that Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad
(D-N.D.) were aware that they were accessing a special program to give
below-market-rate mortgages to the powerful and famous when he arranged
their loans, according to the executive's attorneys.

Gardner Goldsmith offers his study of the economic history of
government regulations forcing health insurance companies to issue
policies regardless of the risks the clients pose due to their age or
pre-existing conditions.

If the Iranian
government won't end its nuclear program, the chairman of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee will push
legislation that "would force companies in the energy sector to choose between doing business with Iran, or doing business with the United States," said Rep. Howard Berman, a California Democrat.

As President Obama is asking members of Congress to take
one of the most politically difficult votes of their careers, he is
pressing them to give up one of their most valued perks of
office: boosting Medicare payments to benefit hometown providers.

The powerful chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial
Services Committee on Wednesday introduced legislation to create a new
consumer financial protection agency that would strip some powers away
from current regulators.

House Resolutions are referred to as H.R., NOT HB. There are S.B.s for Senate Bills but no HB. H.R.1388 was the Serve America Act and it was made into law on 04/21/09. Even the Federal Register link included in the article makes no

Sen. Daniel K. Inouye's
staff contacted federal regulators last fall to ask about the bailout
application of an ailing Hawaii bank that he had helped to establish
and where he has invested the bulk of his personal wealth.
The bank, Central Pacific Financial, was an unlikely candidate for a
program designed by the Treasury Department to bolster healthy banks.
The firm's losses were depleting its capital reserves. Its primary
regulator, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., already had decided
that it didn't meet the criteria for receiving a favorable
recommendation and had forwarded the applica

It comes down to this: Each "representative" that voted to pass Cap and Trade has violated their Congressional Oath of Office to "well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office." How on earth can you--in good faith--fulfill the duties of the office by voting to pass 1500 pages of legislation YOU HAVEN'T READ?! ...Video:.

Among the top 20 recipients of PAC funds from green groups were Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.), who pulled in $9,519 in the 2008 election cycle, and Rep. Vernon Buchanan (R-Fla.) with $14,200. They did not join the other eight this time around, but there will be more

Like for instance, we don’t need court reporters. I mean, we can do this digitally. Why are we still holding on to court reporters? Just because the unions want to hold on and keep their jobs.
— Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

[well, duh!] Kouri with the National Assn. of Chiefs of
Police, assembled traits such as superficial charm, an exaggerated
sense of self-worth, glibness, lying, lack of remorse and manipulation
of others are common to psychopathic serial killers.

The decision by Justice McNamara of State Supreme Court effectively puts the Senate at a 31-to-31 deadlock, but it also leaves Senator Pedro Espada Jr., a Bronx Democrat who crossed party lines last week, as the president of the Senate.

A $100 billion bill to fund U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is
rapidly accumulating extra items such as money for military aircraft
the Pentagon doesn't want and possibly a scheme to jump-start sagging
auto sales.

The cars and planes are not directly linked to the U.S. war effort.
But they are typical of Congress' penchant for loading bills with
unrelated spending in hopes the funds will sail through on the strength
of the main legislation.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., steered millions of dollars in defense work to a campaign donor and the Pentagon went along with it, even though two convicted drug dealers had been deeply involved with the company.
Records filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh starting in 2005 raise questions about whether the government ever checked into the background of William Kuchera of Windber, Pa., a Murtha constituent who has been doing government work for over 20 years.....

The misnamed State Secret Protection Act of 2009 (H.R. 984) is dangerous, in terms of both its effect on national security and the violence it would do to the constitutional separation of powers. Congress should be aware of the following key points:....

When the state gets involved in the market, politics gets involved in the market. And when politics gets involved in the market, it should be no surprise that that politics proceeds to impart its distinctive taint to “market decisions.”